﻿We all know that the job market has changed a lot from what it used to be. Tom Friedman says, in his interview on Innovation Hub podcast with Kara Miller, that he has been working with the New York Times for thirty-three years. When he graduated from college, he had to find a job; however, when his daughters graduate from college, they will have to invent their job. Though some students may get a first job after graduating college, but they will have to learn to re-invent themselves to create new jobs.

Friedman points out that you have to think more like an income entrepreneur generating income streams from several sources instead of having only one source of income stream from a job.

The change is happening real fast. According to Wall Street Journal article "One in Three US Workers Is a Freelancer," there are close to fifty-three million Americans that are working as freelancers. One explanation of this may be that some people are doing this out of choice so they can have control over their work. Another explanation of this is that companies are hiring on a contingent basis. Many freelancers would like to get back to a full-time work as I wrote about in "How to Go From Gigs to Full-time Work," but, unfortunately, this way of working today is becoming the rule rather than the exception.﻿

What caused the change

﻿Friedman says that high wage middle skills job have been disappearing for some time. He says there are three reasons for this shift: Jobs are being pulled in three directions at once.Pulled up -- jobs that require more skillsPulled out -- jobs that are being done by machines, software, robots and workers in China and India. Pulled down -- jobs that are simply not longer needed with the advances in technology, outsourcing, gigs economy and automation.﻿

How fast is this change taking place

Friedman says that when he published his famous book "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twentieth-first Century," in which he explained how our economy was so interconnected with the rest of the world that we were competing with people working in India, China, Mexico, etc. Location no longer entitled one to a good job till retirement as was the case in the past.

When he was on tour promoting his book, he says, "Facebook didn't exist; Twitter was a sound; Cloud was still in the sky; 4G was a parking place; applications were what you sent to college; Skype was a typographical error." In seven years, he says that the world has gotten much flatter and much faster.

According to Friedman, the thing that has changed with technology is that companies don't care that much about what you know. Since Google knows everything, companies are more interested in what you can do with what you know. To get a job today, you have to ask yourself "How I can create value with the skills I possess."

Another thing that has changed is that you can't be too satisfied with what you can do today since there is always someone or something that will be able to do it cheaper, faster, better and smarter than you tomorrow. You have to keep learning and be one of the best at what you do, since average is over.

You have to be better than the next best alternative to have a good job. Your only insurance to maintain a high standard of living is to be able to learn fast and quickly deliver value. If not, then, as the famous Texas saying says, "If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll get is all you ever got."

What must you do to get ahead of the change

﻿If you are comfortable with the way things used to be, then you will have difficulty adjusting since change is relentless. The old way of creating jobs is not coming back where a company comes to town and hires a bunch of people. The company may come and only hire a handful of people but bring along plenty of robots to work side by side with workers to get the job done.

The only antidote to this change, as the Michael Jackson songs says, "You got to to be starting something." Today you have to think and act like an entrepreneur if you want to be gainfully employed, since the only jobs many of us are ever going to have are the ones we create.

We have to stop blaming anyone or anything that is taking our jobs away. That will not help the situation. Instead, look at this as an opportunity to create something, as there are endless opportunities and world indeed is your oyster.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------﻿

﻿Jay Oza is the founder and business development consultant at 5ToolGroup. We help companies sell products and solutions using our unique 5Tool Methodology that integrates sales, marketing, partnerships, customer development and agile/lean methodology with a strong business focus. We believe that to thrive today, you have to be constantly looking for ways to do lot more with lot less. This way of doing business is the only insurance for success today.﻿